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    Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure

    Game » consists of 6 releases. Released Feb 14, 2006

    Getting Up is a video game created by Atari and the Collective. It revolves around the main character, a punk named Trane, as he tries to take back the city of New Radius through the medium of vandalism.

    Getting Up (finally revisiting this game after 4 years' hiatus)

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    ahoodedfigure

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    Edited By ahoodedfigure

    I wrote about my impressions of this game a long time ago, I think, although I more talked about its graffiti mechanics in that post if I remember correctly. Getting Up takes place in a city under constant police crackdown, with you being an artist newly kicked out of the house and ready to make statements through ink, paint, fists and the occasional 2 x 4 across the face. 
     
    I've played it for a few hours, getting further than I did way back in 2008 when I played it last. My initial impressions hold up, where the controls are often too fiddly for me to just feel like I can dive in, and I'm always in danger of forgetting what does what, especially when it comes to combat. You're also more creative in what you SELECT than what you actually do when actually Getting Up your ink or paint designs. You get four slots for each type of action, be it stickers, inkstick, murals, quick spraypaint, stencils or whatever else. You choose these in the setup screen before a level, so you never get to react on the fly to situations. The actual getting up mechanic for murals is interesting, in that you have to worry about drips if you spray in one place too long, and you have a limited amount of time to finish. Not that all your effort matters that much in the long run, since once you move on from an area it all resets anyway.  This isn't an open-world game.
     
    Probably my favorite mechanic is the imperfect but intuitive maneuvering, which lets you climb up girders with fluidity that at least points to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. It's not too difficult to move around, and even if you're in danger of falling off, a little caution pretty much guarantees your safety (although the game engine didn't expect me to run away from a security guard by climbing up a girder. The guy damaged me by hitting the base of girder even though I was 30 feet above him, which was pretty lame).
     
    What I really like, though, and what's going to keep me playing, is the mood. As much as I sympathize with people who say mechanics are the thing in games, Getting Up manages to get to some core mood that I've never seen in any other game.  It's bleak, no question, and while it tends to diminish itself by pushing too hard into trying to look tough and being about empowerment before you even know how rough it is in the city, its ugly, raw picture of the downside of urban life has a refreshing clarity. You WANT to see people put up shaded murals with big bold letters, because what's underneath is ugly and crumbling, even if it seems pristine.
     
    Some of the music is a bit repetitive, but when you hit upon a great track things all fall into place for me. It also rewards exploration, which is a big bonus in my book, although at times I wish I could go back to a level to complete it, rather than starting it all over again to perfect it. It does keep track of music unlocks, though, as well as Black Book unlocks, which have pieces of real-life graffiti art history, with the artists and samples of their work. 
     
    I have to admit my taste in urban art is narrow; I prefer stuff that's clever or colorful, or at least daring. I can't stand random inkstick names on the sides of otherwise inoffensive buildings, but if someone makes a bleak tunnel under a road come alive with shapes, color, and mood I can't help but feel proud of the people who did it. The game's own instructions say that it doesn't condone this sort of behavior in real life, but it's just one of those things we have to deal with-- we admire something, but if it's not sanctioned we can't quite say we do. We become divided, artificially, between our open selves and our private selves. 
     
    There are urban art projects that are sanctioned out there, which I can totally support. In one of my old home towns they closed off a road and had kids paint a giant wall that towered above an accessway however they wanted, brightening up that bleak little area. In a similar way, whatever your politics, this game provides a virtual environment that helps teach you about some of the real the people behind those strange little emblems we see, and the reasons they might want to put them up. I wish the combat was better, I wish there was even more to spraypainting than just doing everything in one coat and calling it good, some stuff is repetitive, some of it gratiitous, some of it janky, but the game haunts me with its mood, showing that if there's some heart put into a game, there's always something worthwhile inside.

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    ahoodedfigure

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    #1  Edited By ahoodedfigure

    I wrote about my impressions of this game a long time ago, I think, although I more talked about its graffiti mechanics in that post if I remember correctly. Getting Up takes place in a city under constant police crackdown, with you being an artist newly kicked out of the house and ready to make statements through ink, paint, fists and the occasional 2 x 4 across the face. 
     
    I've played it for a few hours, getting further than I did way back in 2008 when I played it last. My initial impressions hold up, where the controls are often too fiddly for me to just feel like I can dive in, and I'm always in danger of forgetting what does what, especially when it comes to combat. You're also more creative in what you SELECT than what you actually do when actually Getting Up your ink or paint designs. You get four slots for each type of action, be it stickers, inkstick, murals, quick spraypaint, stencils or whatever else. You choose these in the setup screen before a level, so you never get to react on the fly to situations. The actual getting up mechanic for murals is interesting, in that you have to worry about drips if you spray in one place too long, and you have a limited amount of time to finish. Not that all your effort matters that much in the long run, since once you move on from an area it all resets anyway.  This isn't an open-world game.
     
    Probably my favorite mechanic is the imperfect but intuitive maneuvering, which lets you climb up girders with fluidity that at least points to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. It's not too difficult to move around, and even if you're in danger of falling off, a little caution pretty much guarantees your safety (although the game engine didn't expect me to run away from a security guard by climbing up a girder. The guy damaged me by hitting the base of girder even though I was 30 feet above him, which was pretty lame).
     
    What I really like, though, and what's going to keep me playing, is the mood. As much as I sympathize with people who say mechanics are the thing in games, Getting Up manages to get to some core mood that I've never seen in any other game.  It's bleak, no question, and while it tends to diminish itself by pushing too hard into trying to look tough and being about empowerment before you even know how rough it is in the city, its ugly, raw picture of the downside of urban life has a refreshing clarity. You WANT to see people put up shaded murals with big bold letters, because what's underneath is ugly and crumbling, even if it seems pristine.
     
    Some of the music is a bit repetitive, but when you hit upon a great track things all fall into place for me. It also rewards exploration, which is a big bonus in my book, although at times I wish I could go back to a level to complete it, rather than starting it all over again to perfect it. It does keep track of music unlocks, though, as well as Black Book unlocks, which have pieces of real-life graffiti art history, with the artists and samples of their work. 
     
    I have to admit my taste in urban art is narrow; I prefer stuff that's clever or colorful, or at least daring. I can't stand random inkstick names on the sides of otherwise inoffensive buildings, but if someone makes a bleak tunnel under a road come alive with shapes, color, and mood I can't help but feel proud of the people who did it. The game's own instructions say that it doesn't condone this sort of behavior in real life, but it's just one of those things we have to deal with-- we admire something, but if it's not sanctioned we can't quite say we do. We become divided, artificially, between our open selves and our private selves. 
     
    There are urban art projects that are sanctioned out there, which I can totally support. In one of my old home towns they closed off a road and had kids paint a giant wall that towered above an accessway however they wanted, brightening up that bleak little area. In a similar way, whatever your politics, this game provides a virtual environment that helps teach you about some of the real the people behind those strange little emblems we see, and the reasons they might want to put them up. I wish the combat was better, I wish there was even more to spraypainting than just doing everything in one coat and calling it good, some stuff is repetitive, some of it gratiitous, some of it janky, but the game haunts me with its mood, showing that if there's some heart put into a game, there's always something worthwhile inside.

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    JCTango

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    #2  Edited By JCTango

    I tried to like this game, but I couldn't find it very entertaining :(. I liked that it tried to bring the graffiti underworld into video games, since it was hardly ever done before... the style was nice, yes, but something to me just seemed off/boring.

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    ahoodedfigure

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    #3  Edited By ahoodedfigure
    @JCTango: It has issues, no question. The brawling can be annoying, and when "getting up" I sometimes can't tell what it is I need to satisfy the game's expectations for what constitutes a completed tag. I guess when I get further in I'll be able to mirror or disagree with your assessment; right now I'm a bit annoyed that I have to bust up trash to find hidden stuff, since he doesn't quite break stuff without some prompting.
     
    I'm not bored by it, but I don't find it strongly compelling. I get the feeling if it was more open world I'd probably be playing it right this second.

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